In the 1980s, Prologis legacy company AMB Property Corporation was a small firm doing its best to break into the big leagues in the real estate industry. That meant long hours, hard work, innovative research—and now and then, a little luck.

AMB operated out of unused office space leased from a series of San Francisco law firms during the 1980s. The strategy was simple: Keep costs low and the company image professional. In fact, the refined image conveyed by the firm’s leased space helped AMB land its first major client.

In the mid-1980s, AMB was leasing space on the 29th floor of 345 California St. in San Francisco’s business district. The law firm Morrison & Foerster had attorneys in the same building and wanted to expand onto AMB’s floor.

Morrison & Foerster’s managing partner Mike Liever, a shrewd real estate lawyer, decided to downplay his firm’s need for space, offering AMB the opportunity to buy out its lease. It was hardly a deal. In effect, AMB would be paying Morrison & Foerster to take a space they desperately wanted.

CEO Hamid Moghadam, no stranger to high-stakes negotiations, playfully gave Liever the answer he deserved. “Mike,” he said, “you need this space. You’re going to end up paying me a lot of money for this.”
Moghadam was right. Four months later, the decision to hold out earned dividends. Liever returned, confessing that his firm didn’t just want the space, it needed it. Negotiations ensued, with Morrison & Foerster paying a premium for the office space.

But in order to make a good-natured point—namely, that this small firm wouldn’t be intimidated by anyone, not even a prestigious law firm—Moghadam added a caveat. In order to close the deal, Liever would have to shine the shoes of the firm’s partners—Douglas Abbey, Hamid Moghadam and Bob Burke—at noon in the building’s lobby.

Liever, a good sport, agreed, not knowing that San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen had caught wind of the story and would write up a blurb in the paper on the morning of the big event under the headline “Photo Opportunity.”

Three hundred people showed up to witness the shine. Liever didn’t disappoint. He bought a professional shoeshine kit and, good to his word, gave the partners’ shoes a worthy polish—throwing in the shoeshine kit as a token of his gratitude during the close of the deal.